Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 is a role-playing game that can be enjoyed on many different levels. It’s an intriguing look at a high school student carving out a life for himself in a new town. It’s also a fascinating murder mystery thriller filled with plot twists and shocking moments. It also happens to be a challenging dungeon crawler that will test your knowledge over the game’s combat system to its limits. Persona 4 does all those things and does them very well. This is an RPG that succeeds on many different levels and is one of the best games of the year.

Persona 4′s greatest strength is its finely honed storyline. The game starts off without pulling any punches, dropping you head-first into a thrilling murder mystery that takes place in sleepy rural Japanese town of Inaba. While much of the game revolves around discovering the killer and protecting potential victims, there’s a whole lot more at play here.

Welcome to Inaba

This is as much a story about the protagonist and his ability to settle into a new living situation as it is a dungeon-crawling adventure. The day-to-day life of your high school student becomes a crucial part of the game thanks to the Social Link system. The time you spend exploring this delightfully recreated slice of life in rural Japan is a great part of the allure of Persona 4. You’ll foster relationships with the other colorful characters that inhabit Inaba, like your hardworking detective uncle, his adorable and diligent young daughter, and the other teens that will end up forming your circle of friends.

Social links are improved by managing your schedule (which includes weather patterns and numerous school functions) and making time to interact with these characters, whether it’s by going out on a date or just taking the time to sit down and talk over a meal. You’ll have to do this while also maintaining your studies, working part-time jobs, and performing other self-improvement tasks, raising hidden attributes like knowledge, diligence, courage and understanding. Try to conquer the bottomless beef bowl challenge at the local diner on a rainy day, for instance, and you’ll learn more about yourself than you could have predicted.

You’re rewarded for developing Social Link relationships in numerous ways, foremost by gaining the ability to create more powerful Personas, otherworldly manifestations that lend their strength to those with the willpower to control them. (They’re like the traditional concept of RPG “summons,” only their power come from within.) Creating strong bonds will also improve the abilities of your companions and move the plot in new directions.

As you begin to learn about the methods in which local women are being killed, Persona 4 becomes much more than just the story of a group of nosy teenagers doing their best Scooby Doo impression. At the core of the story is the trademark Shin Megami Tensei staple of an alternate “otherworld” parallel to our own, where special people can visit to face shadows of themselves. Reaching the outlandish TV world is accomplished much like in the Bloody Mary urban legend, but instead of staring into a darkened mirror, you’ll watch the “Midnight Channel” explored by staring into the depths of a darkened television screen on a rainy night.